Technology | Media | Telecommunications

Friday, February 22, 2008

A survey of IT managers in the UK, France and Germany has identified strong demand for wireless and mobile solutions from Small and Medium Businesses (SMB) to multi-national brands.

Andrew Brown, Director of the Wireless Enterprise Strategies service, commented, "Spending on wireless solutions is expected to grow by 23 percent in the UK alone over the next two years, despite flat overall IT budgets in two-thirds of companies. In France and Germany, wireless spend per employee is expected to approach 100 Euros within 2 years."

Wireless Security (23 percent) and Wireless Applications (18 percent) are the top solutions where increased spend is expected in the next few years. However, there is also a strong focus on in-building wireless infrastructure as an area for increased spend -- while remote device management is also on the radar screen with 8 percent planning increased wireless spend here in 2008.

Other key findings from their study include:

- After email (54 percent), shared contact/address book is the second largest base of installed wireless applications (40 percent).

- FIRE (Finance Insurance and Real Estate) is the leading edge vertical with 14 percent of IT spend committed to wireless solutions in 2008.

- Top management is most influential in over 50 percent of cases for deciding wireless spending. IT Department is most influential in 30 percent of cases.

- RIM (hardware and middleware), Microsoft (software & middleware) and Nokia (hardware) best positioned for priority spend by business in 2008.

- Fixed Mobile Convergence for voice is the best opportunity in medium and large business as well as FIRE, but FMC is less than 3 percent of wireless spend in 2008.